’84 Riots
CBI: Witness Jasbir is proclaimed offender
New Delhi, April 1
The CBI today told before a Delhi court that Jasbir Singh, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case allegedly involving former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, was a proclaimed offender and illegally residing in the United States.

Congress leader Sajjan Kumar leaves after appearing in the Karkardoom Court in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riots in
New Delhi on Thursday. — PTI

Questioning Modi
Nanavati Commission keeps options open
Ahmedabad, April 1
The Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 riot cases today kept the option of questioning Chief Minister Narendra Modi open when it told the Gujarat High Court that its decision not to summon him was "not final".

Ambika, Anand may get RS
renomination
New Delhi, April 1
If the recent re-election of Union ministers A.K. Antony and M.S. Gill to the Rajya Sabha is any indication, their other colleagues who are slated to retire over the next few months, should be renominated to the Upper House by the Congress leadership. Union ministers Ambika
Soni, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh are among the 17 Congress Rajya Sabha members whose terms are to end between this month and July.

Case against
Vasundhara
SC notice on Rajasthan’s
plea
New Delhi, April 1
The Supreme Court today ordered status quo and issued notice on the Rajasthan government’s appeal against the high court verdict quashing the setting up of a commission to go into allegations
against BJP leader Vasundhara Raje pertaining to abuse of power and corruption when she was the Chief Minister from 2004 to 2008.

Army chief orders ‘operation clean-up’More than 20 senior officers guilty in various scams in the past four years
New Delhi, April 1
Virtually shaking up the Indian Army out of its self-imposed ‘silence’ on the issue of corruption within the services, the new Army chief, Gen VK Singh, today announced a ‘clean-up’ operation. “…We want to set our own culture right… improve the internal health of the organisation… the Army value system has to be different from the civil society”.
More than 20 senior officers (Brigadier or above) face charges of corruption or moral turpitude in the past three years or so. Some have been cashiered, others have been jailed, one is facing a CBI probe while a few escaped with a censure. General VK Singh, who started his tenure today, made it clear for what he stands for and how he will go about correcting the image of the world’s second largest Army.

Shiv Sainiks burn a poster of Sania Mirza in protest against her decision to marry Pakistani cricketer Sohaib
Malik, in Muradabad on Thursday. — PTI

New chief wants agile, responsive Army
New Delhi, April 1
The new Chief of the Army, Gen VK Singh, today made it clear that his top priorities will include modernisation of the forces and filling the gaps in operational readiness to make the Army "more lethal, agile and responsive”.

Succession battle begins in DMK
Chennai, April 1
The succession battle in the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu resurfaced today with DMK leader M Karunanidhi's elder son and Union Minister Alagiri today asserting that he would contest for the party president post after his father's retirement.

PIO child custody case
SC stays Delhi HC verdict
New Delhi, April 1
The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court ruling that courts in India had no territorial jurisdiction over marital disputes of foreign nationals born in India.

CPM bigger enemy than Maoists:
Gadkari
Kolkata, April 1
Addressing a press conference at the Calcutta Press Club today, BJP’s newly elected president Nitin Gadkari said they were ready to join hands with the Congress, both at the national and state levels, to fight against the CPM and other vested interests that were stalling the country’s progress for serving their political ends.

Knock, knock, Census 2011 is here

Over 25 lakh officials on jobAll 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils to be coveredA first: 1.2 bn people to be given I-cards
President Pratibha Patil was the first to be recorded in New Delhi on Thursday. — PTI

HC stays suspension of AMU reader
Lucknow, April 1
The Allahabad High Court today stayed the suspension of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) reader who was suspended for reportedly having consensual sex in the privacy of his bedroom on the university campus early this year.

Varsity dean commits suicide
Guwahati, April 1
Dean, Faculty of Humanities at Tripura University, and well-known Bengali writer Prof Manjari Choudhury (55) committed suicide at her residence at Shiv Nagar in Agartala city last evening. She was the wife of university Vice-Chancellor Arunudoy
Saha. DIG Nepal Das said she committed suicide between 5:30 and 6:30 pm by hanging herself from the ceiling. “Police recovered a suicide note apparently left by the deceased where she mentioned to have taken the extreme step as she was suffering from depression,” the official said. A case has been registered at the East Agartala police station.

New Delhi, April 1
The CBI today told before a Delhi court that Jasbir Singh, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case allegedly involving former Union Minister Jagdish Tytler, was a proclaimed offender and illegally residing in the United States.

“He has been declared a proclaimed offender in the case of making an attack on Darshan Kaur, a woman witness who wanted to depose against Congress leader HKL Bhagat.

“Jasbir Singh absconded in 2004 after filing of the chargesheet in the case which was lodged with IP Estate police station here in 1997. His passport was ordered to be impounded by the authorities and he was residing in the US illegally,” CBI prosecutor Sanjay Kumar submitted.

The CBI counsel was arguing before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit on the agency’s closure report giving a clean chit to the Congress leader in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case pertaining to the murder of three persons on November 1, 1984, following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Sanjay Kumar read out statements of witnesses like Pala Ram, Sheetal Singh, Rajesh Rani and Bachi Bai, who allegedly claimed before the probe agency that Jasbir was not residing at Jagjit Nagar, contrary to his claim.

CBI counsel’s view was strongly opposed by Rebecca M John, counsel for Lakhwinder Kaur who filed an application before the court protesting the closure report against Tytler.

“The probe agency recorded statements of so many persons but failed to examine Satto Singh, father of Jasbir, who is present even now before the court, till date,” she submitted.

In order to buttress her arguments, she also produced a copy of a complaint submitted to the then SHO of Seelampur by Satto Singh on November 16, 1984 regarding the killing of the landlord by a mob in which he had mentioned his address at Jagjit Nagar as claimed by Jasbir.

Jabir, in an affidavit, had claimed before the Nanawati Commission that he had heard Tytler on November three, 1984 rebuking his men for “nominal killings” carried out in the riots.

“Indisputably, Delhi is one sessions division and any Additional Sessions Judge can try the case. This is not a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

“The chargesheets were assigned to Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of the North East district who conducted the committal proceedings, so the cases are allocated to Additional Sessions Judge (NE) Sunita Gupta,” District and Sessions Judge GP Mittal said. The court directed all accused as well as the CBI counsel to appear before ASJ Gupta on April 5.
— PTI

Ahmedabad, April 1
The Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 riot cases today kept the option of questioning Chief Minister Narendra Modi open when it told the Gujarat High Court that its decision not to summon him was "not final".

The Commission was clarifying its position while responding to a poser by the High Court on March 22 that it communicate by today whether its decision not to summon the 59-year-old BJP leader for questioning was tentative or final.

State Advocate General Kamal Trivedi produced a letter written by secretary of Nanavati Commission in this regard in the court which was taken on record.

Chief Justice S J Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi in its order said, "The Nanavati Commission's letter says that its order of September 18, 2009 is not final." "In view of the letter submitted by the Nanavati Commission the matter has been adjourned till June 17", the court said.

Modi has already subjected himself to a nine-hour questioning by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on March 27 on a complaint in connection with the Gulburg society riot case. The High Court on March 22 had asked the government pleader to seek the clarification while hearing an appeal by Jan Sangarsh Manch (JSM), an NGO representing some of the victims of the post-Godhra riots.

The JSM advocate Mukul Sinha said the Commission informed the court that they have not yet taken a final decision over calling Modi for questioning. Sinha did not believe that the Commission will submit its final report before June 17. "But it was observed by the High Court that in such case (submission of final report) it can always have power to pass an order," he added.

The Commission in September last year had disposed of JSM's plea for summoning of Modi and three others saying they did not find justification in cross-examining them at that point of time for the purpose stated by the NGO.

It had stated in the order that allegations made in the JSM's application were vague and based on wrong or unwarranted assumptions.

The JSM had sought quashing of the Commission's order in the Gujarat High Court and prayed that Modi and three others - the then home minister Gordhan Zadafia, health minister Ashok Bhat and DCP(Zone 5) R J Savani - be called for cross-examination in connection with the riots.

A single bench of Justice K S Jhaveri dismissed its petition in November last year saying that the Commission has not completed its inquiry and still has power to summon Modi under Section 8(b) of Commissions of Inquiry Act.

The JSM then filed an appeal before a division bench to seek quashing of the Commission's order and issuance of summons to Modi and three others for cross-examination with regard to the riots.

The Commission had last month informed the High Court about the status of its inquiry.
— PTI

New Delhi, April 1
If the recent re-election of Union ministers A.K. Antony and M.S. Gill to the Rajya Sabha is any indication, their other colleagues who are slated to retire over the next few months, should be renominated to the Upper House by the Congress leadership. Union ministers Ambika
Soni, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh are among the 17 Congress Rajya Sabha members whose terms are to end between this month and July.

Sharma’s case, however, is different from the others. His six-year term ends tomorrow but the Congress does not have the adequate numbers in his home state Himachal
Pradesh, to get him re-elected from there. It will, therefore, have to field him from another state where vacancies are due in the coming
months.

UPA sources said Sharma is not required to step down as there is a provision in the Constitution laying down that a minister who is not member of Parliament must get elected to either House within six months of taking office. They cite the examples of P.V.Narasimha
Rao, Pranab Mukherjee and, more recently, Vilasrao Deshmukh, who were elected after they had taken up their ministerial duties. In a case very similar to Sharma’s, Saifuddin
Soz, a minister in the UPA government, had also continued in office after his Rajya Sabha term had come to an end. Sharma, it is learnt, has been asked to continue since the party plans to nominate him from another state, most likely Haryana.

Similarly, information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni is expected to be re-elected from Punjab. Her term ends in July. Environment minister Jairam Ramesh is expected to be fielded once again from Andhra Pradesh although there could be a revolt in the politically fragile state that no outsider can be accommodated. Besides
Ramesh, five other members, J.D. Seelam, Hanumantha Rao, N. Janardhana Reddy, Girish Sanghi and the CPM's P. Madhu will also be retiring at the same time. Of these six seats, the Congress can get three and may be able to get another one with the help of parties like the Praja Rajyam Party
(PRP) and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).

Former petroleum minister Satish Sharma, known for his proximity to the Congress’s first family, also has a problem as the party does not have the strength to get him re-elected from Uttarakhand. There is also a question mark over Mohsina Kidwai’s re-election from
Chhattisgarh. AICC general secretaries Oscar Fernandes and B. K. Hariprasad are among the four members retiring from Karnataka.

New Delhi, April 1
The Supreme Court today ordered status quo and issued notice on the Rajasthan government’s appeal against the high court verdict quashing the setting up of a commission to go into allegations
against BJP leader Vasundhara Raje pertaining to abuse of power and corruption when she was the Chief Minister from 2004 to 2008.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma passed the order after Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium contended that the HC had invalidated the government order without any basis. There was no political witch-hunting or vendetta involved in the setting up of the Justice NN Mathur Enquiry Commission, he said.

It was not proper to transfer the task to the state Lokayukt after the commission had examined as many as 1,561 files, the SG argued. Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the respondents, Kashi Purohit and others, said if the trend was allowed, ministers in every government would face such allegations once their party was out of power.

While the HC did not find any justification for setting up a commission on January 23 last year when Lokayukt was already there, the Congress government headed by Ashok Gehlot defended
its move arguing that it was only a fact-finding exercise to enable a decision on further steps.

New Delhi, April 1
Virtually shaking up the Indian Army out of its self-imposed ‘silence’ on the issue of corruption within the services, the new Army chief, Gen VK Singh, today announced a ‘clean-up’ operation. “…We want to set our own culture right… improve the internal health of the organisation… the Army value system has to be different from the civil society”.

More than 20 senior officers (Brigadier or above) face charges of corruption or moral turpitude in the past three years or so. Some have been cashiered, others have been jailed, one is facing a CBI probe while a few escaped with a censure. General VK Singh, who started his tenure today, made it clear for what he stands for and how he will go about correcting the image of the world’s second largest Army.

In the past few years, senior officers have been held guilty by the Army Court of Inquiries for a liquor scam, a dry ration scam, a frozen meat scam, for accepting gratification for purchases and even for molesting a woman officer. These are apart from the much publicised and the latest Darjeeling land scam where four senior officers have been held blameworthy of having colluded with a private builder to issue a no-objection certificate.

It was General VK Singh, in his earlier capacity as GOC-in-C of the Eastern Command, who had ordered the inquiry into the Darjeeling land scam, which recommended the summary dismissal of the Military Secretary (MS) Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash. He, as MS, decided all transfers, postings and promotions of senior officers. A summary dismissal is one of the harshest punishments-the rank is stripped, the pension is stopped and the person does not qualify to be an ex-serviceman. Others facing various levels of action in the same case are Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali, Lt Gen PK Rath and Maj Gen P. Sen.

Another of the recent cases is of Maj Gen AK Lal, who was dismissed after having been found guilty of molesting a junior woman officer. The woman’s parents, based in Dehradun, had lodged a written complaint against the Major General to the then Army chief Gen JJ Singh.

In early 2007, the two Lieutenant Generals of the Army Service Corps (ASC), S.K. Dahiya and S.K. Sahni, were indicted in two separate cases involving irregularities in the procurement of frozen meat for troops posted in Ladakh and discrepancies in procurement of dry rations, respectively. In the latter case, the CoI recommended disciplinary action against Brig SK Handa and Brig PS Gill. The officers have appealed and matter is now pending before a civil court.

Last year two Major Generals of the Army Ordnance Corps, Anand Swaroop and SP Sinha, faced separate charges of irregularities in the purchase of stores. The two were in running for the top post of DG Ordnance Services (DGOS) at Army HQ. In 2007, the CBI booked Maj Gen Anand Kapoor for possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 5 crore.

Another notable case was of Gur Iqbal Singh Multani, a Major General, who was found guilty of attempting to smuggle large quantities of defence liquor to his hometown. He was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment, stripped of his rank and dismissed from service by a military court.

New Delhi, April 1
The new Chief of the Army, Gen VK Singh, today made it clear that his top priorities will include modernisation of the forces and filling the gaps in operational readiness to make the Army "more lethal, agile and responsive”.

With huge experience in counter-insurgency and high altitude operations, Gen Singh said, “.. the Army would be unable to meet external threats effectively till its internal health is not good”.

Talking to a group of journalists in his office at the South Block here this evening he said, “Our core values, our ethos and tradition will receive due attention”.

“An internal audit will matter a lot to me,” the General said. On being asked to elaborate as to what he meant by the “internal health”, the General identified core values, selflessness, credentials, norms and professionalism of the Army and the strengthening of these. He, however, refused to term it as “a crackdown on corruption”. Such terms “will never take us any far”. “On capacity building and modernisation of Chinese military he said the Army would “stand up and measure up to the challenge”.

Chennai, April 1
The succession battle in the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu resurfaced today with DMK leader M Karunanidhi's elder son and Union Minister Alagiri today asserting that he would contest for the party president post after his father's retirement.

Asserting that Karunanidhi was his leader, Alagiri said "Ours is a democratic party. I will contest the president’s post if there is an election".

He also made it clear that he was only aspiring for the DMK president's post and not the Chief Minister's post, while replying to a query whether he would contest against his younger brother MK Stalin.

“Currently, he (Stalin) is the Deputy Chief Minister. I will contest the party’s president post in case there is an election for it”, Alagiri said, hinting that he would not stand in the way of Stalin's succession to the Chief Minister's
post.

Alagiri had only began from where he had left, since he had already said "I will not accept anyone else as my leader, after Kalaignar
(Karunanidhi). In an interview to a Tamil weekly, before he left for Australia, the Union Minister had indirectly hit out at Stalin by stating that no one had the capability to lead the party after
Karunanidhi.

The latest provocation for Alagiri's outburst is said to be a cover story titled
"Mudisooda Mudhalvar" (Uncrowned Chief Minister) published by the Tamil edition of "India Today", which hailed Stalin as the undisputed leader of the DMK in
future.

Alagiri has set the stage for the succession battle, despite Karunanidhi's efforts to settle the issue by stating that he did not have the power to decide who would be the next leader and only the party could decide about it.

"Both Alagiri and Stalin are aware of the fact that I will be the most affected if there were skirmishes between the two siblings", he had said, in an interview to a Tamil weekly.

The CM had also indicated that he was firm on his retirement plans and said "the party cadres will not be hard-hearted to the level of not allowing me to retire from active politics". At a function in December, the 86-year-old DMK leader, who had underwent a spinal surgery, had announced that he would retire from active politics after the World Classical Tamil Conference in June this year.

New Delhi, April 1
The Supreme Court today stayed a Delhi High Court ruling that courts in India had no territorial jurisdiction over marital disputes of foreign nationals born in India.
A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and TS Thakur passed the order after Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh contended that Indian courts “can’t wash their hands off” in such cases affecting a large number of women of this country married to Indians settled abroad.

The apex court’s move came on a petition filed by a post graduate dentist, Ruchi Majoo, challenging the March 8, 2010 verdict of the HC. She married Sanjeev in 1996 under the Hindu Marriage Act when she was staying here and the groom in the US. After the marriage, she joined her husband and they had a child in 2001. In due course, all the three became US citizens.

However, Ruchi returned to India along with the child in 2008 and a Delhi court granted the boy’s custody to the mother. The husband challenged this in the HC which struck down the trial court verdict on jurisdictional ground. In the meantime, he also filed a case of kidnapping in a US court against Ruchi, besides obtaining divorce. On the order of the US court, Interpol had issued an alert for the arrest of the mother and the child. Last week, the apex court had ordered status quo over the child’s custody. The matter would now come up for final hearing on May 7.

Kolkata, April 1
Addressing a press conference at the Calcutta Press Club today, BJP’s newly elected president Nitin Gadkari said they were ready to join hands with the Congress, both at the national and state levels, to fight against the CPM and other vested interests that were stalling the country’s progress for serving their political ends.

To him, the CPM was a bigger enemy even than the Maoists. They do not take any responsibility in the nation building, but have been always hampering the country’s progress by creating unnecessary obstacles, Gadkari charged.

However, speaking at the party convention at the indoor stadium yesterday, he lashed out at Sonia Gandhi and the AICC for patronising Muslims for gaining political mileage. He alleged the Congress was dividing the nation on communal basis, a charge that the Congress leadership had been making against the BJP for a long time.

Gadkari said Hindutwa was no longer their
slogan and they were for development and it was their new slogan.

Lucknow, April 1
The Allahabad High Court today stayed the suspension of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) reader who was suspended for reportedly having consensual sex in the privacy of his bedroom on the university campus early this year.

A division bench of Justices Sunil Ambwani and Virendra Singh today stayed three of the four points on which the petitioner, reader and chairman of Modern Indian Languages at AMU Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, had demanded relief.

In a bizarre development following a sting operation by a local news channel catching 64-year-old Dr Siras and a rickshaw-puller on video, the AMU authorities suspended him on February 10, 2010.

Today the High Court not only stayed the suspension order but also allowed him to apply for the post of professorship in his department for which he is the most eligible candidate being the seniormost teacher in the department.

The court also stayed the restriction on his movement. Following the suspension and a disciplinary inquiry, Dr Siras had been prohibited from moving out of Aligarh.

According to his counsel Anand Grover, the only point on which the court did not permit a stay was the disciplinary inquiry. “As Dr Siras is due to retire this year we did not press for staying the inquiry as he is not guilty of any misconduct”.

Today’s High Court order puts the AMU authorities in a tight corner as they had hurriedly suspended Siras, forced him to vacate the university quarters and created an environment in which he has been targeted despite the historic Delhi High Court order decriminalising consensual sex between same-sex partner.

Guwahati, April 1
Dean, Faculty of Humanities at Tripura University, and well-known Bengali writer Prof Manjari Choudhury (55) committed suicide at her residence at Shiv Nagar in Agartala city last evening. She was the wife of university Vice-Chancellor Arunudoy Saha.

DIG Nepal Das said she committed suicide between 5:30 and 6:30 pm by hanging herself from the ceiling. “Police recovered a suicide note apparently left by the deceased where she mentioned to have taken the extreme step as she was suffering from depression,” the official said. A case has been registered at the East Agartala police station.

She was also suffering from kidney ailment for past few years. The depression she was suffering from could be linked to disappearance of family’s younger son who was an IIT student, from Howarh in Kolkata in 1997. He was suspected to be abducted and couldn’t be traced till date.